The Fall of the Crystal Empire
by Paranoid-American20
Summary: When an ancient evil is awoken in the Zebra nation by two ponies, then banished to the frozen north, the world thinks that it should be forgotten about. However, evil can never be trapped away forever, and when it gets out again, the weaken Crystal Empire is its target for destruction. Soon, the whole of Equestria will be watching to see who will win, with everything at stake.


The Fall of the Crystal Empire

Chapter 1: An Off Guard Excursion

_0900 hours, 2 miles from the Luna Army forward camp, 20 miles into the Burchelli Desert, Zebrica._

The heat of the desert was becoming unbearable for the caramel coloured earth pony. His uniform was damp with sweat, and small droplets slid over his cutie mark of three blue horseshoes. He removed his cap and wiped a hoof across his forehead, and he attempted to sort out his light brown mane. He looked around him, spying nothing but sharp rocks and harsh, coarse sand, as well as his compatriot. The pegasus who got him into this.

The blue pegasus with vivid red feathers on his wings was currently studying an old, worn parchment against a large rock, paying little to no attention to his suffering friend. His eyes were obscured by large sunglasses, a loose red and white cloth hung from his neck, and his mane was neon green in hue, with crimson streaks. He seemed rather unaffected by the heat, being more intent of observing his parchment. His cutie mark of a bat seemed to glare at the Earth pony, who was called Caramel.

As the heat became even more unbearable for Caramel, he decided to talk to his friend, a friend he knew only by his initials.

"P.A...are you sure this is the right place?" Caramel asked, moving to look over the pegasus's shoulder. P.A turned his head slightly, and grinned at Caramel.

"Not quite, ma friend...not quite. But, ya see that colle'tion of rocks, over there?" he gestured absent-mindedly to a large pile of rocks that were about half a mile away, if not slightly more. Caramel looked, and a sudden sense of dread washed over him.

"You mean we're going over there?" he sighed, his pleading eyes trying to gauge some emotion from underneath those large, gold rimmed glasses. P.A just continued his grinning, and replied with;

"Of course! The lost tomb of the Quagga Emp'ror lies among the rocks over there, at least 'ccording to this here map they do." P.A began to wander off in that direction, and Caramel did nothing but watch him for a few minutes, before deciding to follow him.

He caught up with his determined friend quick enough, panting slightly due to the heat. P.A just carried on, single minded in his quest. Caramel saw this, and decided to reason with his friend.

"Listen, P.A...I think we've been out here in the desert long enough...the general will wonder where we've gotten to and...and think of the Zebra that would love to ambush two lonesome ponies such as ourselves! Have you thought of that? I have. So lets get back to base. We can look for treasure another time, when we're not meant to be on guard duty…"

P.A gave a small laugh, and replied; "Come on, Caramel. You know that the whole camp is gonna be movin' tomorrow, clos'r to the Zebra cap'tal, and we ain't never gonna 'ave another chance at gettin' this fabulous treasure. So what if General Derps gets a bit wall-eyed due to our personages bein' late? Better to be wealthy than to be bored, dontcha say?"

Caramel winced slightly as P.A spoke. "Can you not refer to General Ditzy Doo as 'General Derps', please? I find it insulting, and a harsher General, such as General Heartstings would have you court marshalled for it!"

"Ah, come on! Look at that grey mare! Can't see straight, can't tell north from south-" Caramel cut in;

"You can't tell east from west, P.A…"

"It's not that I can't; it's that I don't want ma directions dictated to me by the sun." P.A answered, pausing to shrug his shoulders. Caramel sighed.

"Anyway, it's you I'm worried for. You regularly leave your post, and the General did say that if you skive off again, she'll have those red feathers of yours! I think she's been rather generous to you, considering the way you act."

P.A turned to him slightly, a quizzical look plastered behind his sunglasses. "Whatcha mean 'the way _I _act'? I act as I do and I act as I want."

"That's the problem! You act like you don't need to follow orders! You acting in this way could get us killed! We are in a war zone, remember? A single disobeyed order on your behalf and the whole company will be destroyed! Wait a second, are you even listening to me? P.A, you better be listening to me!" He was practically yelling at his friend, when P.A shushed him, and stopped.

"What? Why did you shush-" P.A shushed him again, and looked around anxiously, as if expecting something. Confused, Caramel did the same, and found that they were in the midst of the rocks that P.A had so earnestly sought. According to the map, the tomb should be right in this spot.

It wasn't.

P.A gazed upon the rocks, the fine wind blasted sand, the occasional lizard darting from upturned stone to upturned stone. It took a moment for his surroundings to sink in, but when it did, he hurriedly began to look at the map, then back to the scenery, then back to the map.

"P.A?..." Caramel asked, looking at his friend.

"Where's the tomb?" P.A suddenly asked him.

"What?"

"Where's the damn tomb? The map said it'll be here, in these rocks! A mighty tomb filled with treasure b'yond the imagination of mortal ponies! Not...Not _rocks!_ Worthless, pointless rocks! Not even a 'elestia damned Zebra would call this treasure! Where's my gold? The map said there was gold! Where is it!" he yelled at his frightened friend, who back away cautiously from the fuming pegasus.

"I-I don't k-know P.A...I-I mean,the map said the tomb was over several thousand years old...before Discord's rule even...The desert could have just swallowed it-"

"The desert does not swallow a tomb filled with **my **gold! I paid over four thousand bits for this worthless rag of parch'ent, 'oping to get the gold back on this tomb! I even got myself sent to this nation of savages to get ma treasure, and what do I find? Rocks," he spat, removing his sunglasses to reveal his large red eyes. He slumped down, head in his hooves, muttering to himself.

Caramel watched him for a few moments, then spoke;

"Listen, P.A...I know you're upset, but please calm down. Please think rationally. If you did find the treasure, how would you get it back to your home in Las Pegasus? One little pegasus couldn't possible cart all the supposed wealth that far, now could they?"

"I could...I'd fly all day an' night with the treasure...sure, it might take a few return trips…" He trailed off in his muttering, causing Caramel to roll his eyes and snap:

"We both know that you'd be either murdered by the Zebra for desecration of a burial site, or shot down by the Solar troops as soon as you got back. They've heard of you, P.A. You wouldn't make it out with the treasure, and the general wouldn't be willing to organize a treasure escort mission for you, not after your insubordination…"

"Bitch…" muttered P.A. Caramel sighed.

"Mature. Listen, I'm going back to base. I'll let you have half an hour to sulk and be upset, and I'll even tell the general that you've just lost a lot of bits, and need time to come together. Coming from me, she'll take pity on you. You see, I can be a good friend.

"Whatever." was the only reply.

"Fine. Just don't be late. Even with me, the general won't be that kind." and with that, Caramel began to walk off back to camp, leaving his distressed friend to his own thoughts. He did feel sorry for P.A, but now wasn't the time for this.

Soon, Caramel was out of sight, and P.A was completely alone. He was busy thinking out his plan of action, now that the treasure idea didn't pay off. It was a desperate ploy, but sometimes a stallion will do all that is necessary to save himself. He had made powerful enemies in Las Pegasus, and the tomb was going to be his ticket to getting out of the mess. Now he was without any other options. The tomb had been a pointless idea.

Or so he thought.

A sudden glinting off to his side suddenly caught his eye. The sun's accursed glare off it entranced him for mere moments, before he realised what it could possibly mean. Even if it was just a simple, lousy gem, then he could have the pleasure of going back with something to his name. He scrambled over to the glinting object and, as he drew closer, he saw what the object was.

It wasn't a gem. No, it was part of an ancient golden statue. He stared at the small part of it above the shifting sands, before it clicked within his mind that this could actually be a marker to the very tomb that he was so desperately searching for. Frantically he began to dig around it, his hopes soaring higher and higher every second.

Finally, after what seemed like an agonizingly long time, he had reveal a good portion of the golden statue. What this statue was, and what it symbolised made a smile grow on his face faster than ever before.

The statue was undeniably old and, more importantly, it was moulded into the form of what appeared to be a Zebra-type creature, better called a 'Quagga'. An entire species, built upon fabulous wealth, swallowed by the sands in a single day. With nothing remaining of them, except for the occasional ruin, it was hard to know anything about them. But now, P.A was going to personally discover the true extent of the legendary wealth of their emperor.

The pegasus, hurriedly began to look at the map, glancing at the small pieces of text that were scrawled in old Equestrian down the edges. Then he found it.

A sentence, written in barely legible script, so small that one could easily miss it. One with the instruction, the sole instruction, on how to enter the tomb. And it simply read:

"_A gem is not the only price to pay." _

P.A was confused by what it was telling him. He did have a gem, preparing for his grand entrance into the crypt, and he did indeed see a small niche in which the gem should be placed, which was in the centre of a golden bowl that the golden statue was holding out towards him. Cautiously, he placed the blue gem in that small niche, and then sat back, thinking about what else he had to do to actually enter the resting place of his soon to be wealth.

That is, until he heard a soft thud behind him,

He spun around, and there, lying no more than a couple of meters away from him, upright in the sand, was a simple and crude spear, adorned with a variety of different feathers taken from what P.A presumed were native birds. Cautiously, he approached the weapon, confused at why it had suddenly appeared.

"What? When did you get 'ere?" he whispered to the spear, looking around to see if he had any unwanted company. He was about to gauge that the answer was 'no', until another spear landed a few centimetres away from his face, causing him to reel back in shock and scramble away from his assailants. A few more spears landed nearby, none of them hitting the panicking Pegasi, before shots began to ring out from a point unknown to P.A.

The panic began to steadily rise as a bullet screamed past P.A's right ear, and he suddenly got the feeling of dread that he would die in this forsaken place.


End file.
